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About MarizaCabral

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https://soundcloud.com/mariza_costa-cabral

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I am a 53 y.o. scientist who, at age 49, started composing music for piano. I took piano lessons in my childhood and youth, but didn't play it as an adult until I re-started recently. I have not studied composition and only use my intuition when I compose.

My opinion, for whatever it is worth (from someone with little music education), is that (1) You show a lot of skill in piano writing which works very well and is, perhaps one could use the term, very "pianistic". (2) But in my opinion the opening theme is not powerful enough, it's too simple and doesn't have much life force in it. It's admirable you were able to develop it, but it's not a worthwhile theme. (3) The second theme doesn't really complement the first one, in my opinion. You need better themes, better melodies. Somehow you need to let your heart sing out themes that are meaningful, powerful, have a hook, a personality, a character, true music. Other than that, you already have the capacity for development and writing that would lead to excellent pieces.

ilv,
Thank you for listening, and for commenting - I appreciate it. The parallel octaves and all the other notes in there are, in my view of my own piece, the correct notes, not to be replaced by any other notes. It may be that the theory states that octaves are to be avoided, but of course theory is derived from music (not the other way around) so I write the music I want the way that makes sense to me. I am interested in writing melodic music that follows what to me sounds like a logical and meaningful musical discourse. This, of course, does not mean that other composers -- some better composers than myself -- will hear it as either logical or meaningful. It is often said that music is a universal language, but actually it can perceived very differently by different people.
Perhaps the pause is awkward. But if you play the passage without a pause, then it sounds even more awkward to me. When something big happens in front of you, you don't just "move along", you slow down at least. Not slowing down would be unnatural and truly awkward. The music here had to pause because something major had happened; namely, it had reached a sort of logical dead end -- it tried to keep going with the baroque style, but the melody itself of the second half of the piece had encoded within a formula that would lead to a dead end, and the only way to carry on with it was to move towards a more outwardly romantic (Chopinesque) feeling. So the realization that it had reached a dead end was a noteworthy occurrence, a major occurrence, that required pause before resuming, now in a Romantic style. The only way (in my opinion) to not have that pause is to not have that phrase, and to not have that phrase we can't have that opening theme for the second movement. We'd need to start that second movement differently. The theme we have now blossoms naturally onto that phrase, that dead end, which cannot be experienced without pause. It all goes together, at least in my mind. But not universally felt that way.
Mariza

I really loved your piece, Yanpeng. It is filled with marvels and lifts the spirit. Flows naturally and logically albeit in a unique manner.
Beautiful ornamentations on the high register. Just gorgeous! And that tango at the end... :)

This piece reflects the following story:
A young woman living in a 19th Century French town finds, while exploring her family home attic, music manuscripts composed by her great-great grandfather, from northern Germany, who composed in the baroque style of his time and place. One of his two-part preludes was unfinished! The woman set out to finish the piece, trying very hard to keep to the same baroque style. But alas, her time and place shone through, and the second part of the prelude, written by her, turns out to be a romantic piece written in counterpoint.
I hope you like it! :)

Oh, I see. The bar that says "Upload your composition..." can be shrunk (in which it is just one line and pale in color) or expanded (in which we see a list of music categories) by tapping it on the right side. This time when I logged in the bar was fully expanded. The previous time it was in its shrunk form. I see now that we have control of expanding it. Sorry about that.

It is difficult, with the current design of the home page, to find the music being posted. It took me quite a while to find the bar that says "Upload your compositions for analysis and feedback". It is small and lighter in color. It's the first time I visit here after at least 1 year. Just saying this as feedback, in case it's useful.